Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 6, 1 June 1988 — Queen Emma, Kamehameha IV May be Named Saints by Episcopal Church [ARTICLE]

Queen Emma, Kamehameha IV May be Named Saints by Episcopal Church

For their love of God and Hawaii's people and acts of charity in founding schools, churches, a hospital and cathedral, Queen Emma Kaleleokalani and King Alexander Liholiho Kamehameha IV may be declared saints by the Episcopal church. The royal pair will enter the calendar of saints in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church with a feast day of their own eaeh Nov. 28, if the 1988 General Episcopal Convention in July confirms the action of the previous one in 1983, a necessary two-step procedure. The feast day has been observed since 1983 only by the diocese in Hawaii. This news appeared in a tribute to Queen Emma given at Hanaikamalama, Queen Emma's summer palaee in Nu'uanu, that was published in the April/ May 1988 issue of Hawaiian Church Chronicle, a newsletter published by the Episcopal Diocese of Honolulu. Newsletter editor The Rev. John Paul Engelcke, vicar of Holy Cross Church at Malaekahana wrote: "Her blood and her marriage made her a queen, but her love made her one of God's saints." Emma was born January 2, 1836 and died Apnl 25, 1885. According to Engelcke, "A saint in the Anglican (Episcopal) church understanding is (1) an un-

doubtedly historical figure, (2) heroic in love of God and in love of neighbor as one's self, who is (3) an example relevant to the many, rather than to the few. Queen Emma is clearly all three." Since 1979, the calendar of feast-days has included four historical royal persons: Elizabeth, Princess of Hungary; Margaret, Queen of Scotland; Alfred the Great, King of the West Saxons: and Louis IX, King of France. With the addition of Queen Emma and King Kamehameha IV, that will make six royals, and two of them are Hawaiian. The date commemorates their confirmation in the Episcopal church on Nov. 28, 1862, but it also marks the date Emma's foster father, Thomas Charles Byde Rooke, died in 1858. It further was the date of the old Hawaiian Independence Day, on Nov. 28, 1843, that commemorates the restoration of Hawaiian sovereignty in a declaration signed by the government of England and France. Engelcke notes, "One further sign of the saint is that their works endure. Today Hawaii has a great hospital (Queen's Medical Center), a fine school (St. Andrew's Priory), a noble cathedral (St. Andrew's Cathedral), and an important church all testifying to the love of Queen Emma for her people and to her charity . . . all remain as her memorials."